The use of portable lighting devices is well known in the prior art. Many examples are known which use one or more batteries to power a variety of light producing devices including incandescent bulbs and fluorescent lamps. Certain varieties of such known portable lighting devices are equipped with rechargeable batteries eliminating the need to purchase replacement batteries after one discharge.
A limitation of battery operated portable lighting devices is that the batteries provide a limited supply of stored energy and therefore operate a light for a limited amount of time before draining beyond use. In such cases new batteries must be available to return the portable lighting device to service.
A limitation of battery operated portable lighting devices utilizing rechargeable batteries and lacking an internal power source is that the rechargeable batteries store a limited amount of electrical energy providing illumination for a limited amount of time before requiring recharge. While the rechargeable batteries may be recharged multiple times, an external power source must be available to supply power to restore the charge.
Additionally, it is known to have portable electric lighting devices operated without batteries or an external electric power supply by the use of a hand crank, squeeze trigger or similar means operating a small electric generator to produce enough current to operate the lamp of the device.
A limitation of such self powered electric lighting devices is that the hand crank or similar means must be continually operated in order to keep the portable lighting device illuminated. This procedure is inconvenient for many tasks where both hands must be free and available to work.
Therefore, a portable self contained light generating device which eliminates the need for batteries as well as external power to operate the light, a self contained light generating device which utilizes high efficiency solid state light emitting diodes, a self contained light generating device which is configured to produce electricity to operate the light emitting diodes by converting a portion of the kinetic energy granular material flowing under the influence of gravity, such a portable self contained light generating device would be useful and novel.